


The Roads we walk...

by Bablefisk



Series: The Road of life [1]
Category: Glee
Genre: Amnesia, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-19
Updated: 2013-11-15
Packaged: 2017-11-26 01:57:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/645269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bablefisk/pseuds/Bablefisk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sebastian and his mother finds a boy walking along the road, that can't seem to remember who he is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prolouge

**Author's Note:**

> AN: This just came to me a week or so ago, and wouldn't leave me alone.  
> Beta: Thanks to The Other and jwmolmoth, all mistakes are mine  
> Disclaime: Glee is not mine

**Prologue**

He's angry as he drives down the road. No, scratch that, he's pissed off! He can't believe how much of an oblivious douchebag his boyfriend can be sometimes. Doesn't he get that it hurts? That it's not just words, that they actually have an impact?

Tears are marking his skin, although he has stopped crying a while ago. His palm still stings from where he slapped the other boy, as it clings to the steering wheel, his body still strumming with adrenaline.

He doesn't know where he is. He drove off in such a rage, driving blindly, that when he finally takes the time to look around, he doesn't recognize anything. It looks like any other abandoned-at-night road that he has seen in the movies, but he can't remember ever driving here before. When he looks at his watch, he realizes that he has been driving for almost four hours, so maybe that's not so strange.

His cell phone starts to vibrate on the passenger seat. It's probably his boyfriend again. His dad thinks he is spending the weekend at Dalton, visiting his old classmates - which had been the plan, but he's not really sure what to do now. Maybe find a motel, as it's getting rather late.

Suddenly there is pain in his head. He's confused, can't understand the sudden ache in his forehead and neck, but as he looks around a little woozily, he understands. He wasn't paying any attention to his driving in his anger, and his car has swerved and hit a tree, it seems.

He climbs out of the car, figuring that maybe he can fix it, but he is dizzy and starts to walk instead, losing all sense of thought. It's like his legs are working for themselves, without his brains’ input, because he has no idea why he is walking. Everything is blurry and the wrong way around, and he can't really feel anything.

He doesn't know how much time goes by. He seems to be living in a bubble of a kind, the rest of the world is just there, just out of reach, but he doesn't have the focus and energy to reach out. He thinks his legs are moving, but he can't really be sure.

Suddenly there are voices. They are coming closer, and as he hears a women talking, he can feel soft hands touching him. Only seconds later another pair of hands, rougher ones, join them, and a male voice too. He can't really hear what they are saying, and their faces are blurry and out of sorts, but they seem to be kind people. So he lets go, having used up any energy he had left and like cutting strings, his body falls in on itself. He can feel strong arms holding him, and the deeper timbre of the male voice right next to his ear. Someone is stroking his hair, and suddenly he is moving. He doesn't move far, and he's pretty sure he didn't move on his own. There are some movements and shuffling, and then everything is still again. The male voice is still in his ear, and now it's singing, with a very nice voice. He can feel the hum of an engine, and he's pretty sure he's in a car with some nice people. After a little while, his brain seems to think he has been awake enough, and promptly shuts down.

In an abandoned Navigator, a cell phone rings on the passenger seat.


	2. The Hospital

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made a slight technical mistake when I added the first chapter, and it looked like a one-shot. It's not, obviously, and will most likely be the first of two stories.  
> Beta: Thanks to The Other, all mistakes are mine

 

**Chapter 1: The Hospital**

Sebastian Smythe had only been in America for four days, and he wasn’t quite sure if he really wanted to be there. His school year in Paris had ended five days ago, and he and his mother had flown out as soon as possible to join the rest of the family in New York. His two older siblings, Katherine and Oliver, were both in college in the big city, and he hadn't seen them since Christmas, so he was really looking forward to it. He and his parents had lived in France the last two years. His mother, Vivian, who was French, was in the fashion business and owned a company that spread throughout the western world, but had two main bases; Paris and New York. His father, Richard, had been working as a lawyer in Paris the last few years, helping a cousin of his wife start up a business, but had been offered the position of state attorney in New York. They were back in the States to meet family, and to decide what would happen next for their family. Vivian would have to get back to Paris for work, as they were starting a big project come fall, and Richard and Sebastian had to decide where they would go. Neither really knew just yet.

Sebastian and his mother had taken a little detour to visit the few relatives they had in Ohio, and were currently on their way to Buffalo to visit some more cousins, and then they would be driving to New York. Sebastian knew the road well, because even though he had grown up in New York, his grandparents’ lived in Columbus and his aunt and uncle lived in Buffalo, so his family had taken this road many times.

By the time they drove by Erie, it had become dark and they couldn't see much more than the road. Sebastian had been dozing on and off for an hour or so when his mother suddenly broke the silence in the car, with her French accented American.

“What in the world...”

Sebastian looked at her in confusion, but she was looking at the side of the road and slowing down the car. He looked out to see what she had noticed, and sat up in surprise when he saw a person stumbling along the road. The car stopped and they both got out, approaching the wanderer cautiously.

“Hey, are you okay?”

When there was no answer to be had, they both moved a little closer. His mother deemed it safe and carefully touched the boys’ face and shoulder. It was a boy, Sebastian could see now. He was rather thin and he was bleeding heavily from a wound in his head. His brown hair was mattered in blood and all in all he looked like he was barely standing on his feet. Despite all this, all Sebastian could think of was if his skin was as silky as it looked. When he carefully laid his hand on the boy's cheek, his first thought was that it really was. A thought he immediately felt kind of horrible for.

His mother was trying to get through to the boy, but he didn't seem to be able to answer. Sebastian tried talking to him as well, but before long, the boy's body seemed to just collapse in on himself, and Sebastian barely managed to catch him in his arms before he hit the road. He carefully lifted the smaller body as his mother told him to get in the car.

“Come on, mon cher, we will drive him to the hospital in Buffalo, there's no point in calling an ambulance just to have to wait for it and then have them drive him there.”

Sebastian just nodded his head and held the small body close as he tried to sit down in the passenger seat without hurting him too much. As he got in, he pushed the seat as far back it could go, and held onto the other boy. He was flinching and making nonsense noises, so Sebastian started stroking the back of his hair that was free of blood, and started singing quietly in his ear. The other boy seemed to calm down and soon his whole body relaxed, as if he had fallen asleep. His mother drove the car, quite a bit faster than before, and Sebastian found a t-shirt in the back, pressing it onto the head wound just in case as his mother rang up the hospital.

“Hello, this is Vivian Smythe, I am calling because my son and I found a boy walking along the road, with a big head wound and possibly some other injuries. Yes. No, we are driving towards Buffalo now, we are maybe half an hour away. Yes. Yes, we are doing that currently. No, he seems to have fallen asleep, maybe lost consciousness. No, he did not say his name, but he looks to be about my son's age, maybe 17 or 18. Okay, we will. Thank you.”

They drove on without speaking, the only sound being Sebastian low singing to the other boy.

27 minutes later, they pulled into the parking lot to the hospital, and his mother hurried in whilst Sebastian climbed out of the car as carefully as he could. Half way over the parking lot, two medical staff came running out with a gurney, and soon they were running in again, working efficiently to check the small boy out.

After answering some questions from the nurse at the reception, the police came and asked them the same questions. Neither Sebastian nor his mother knew the answers to any of them. The police had looked through his personal possessions, but he hadn't carried an ID of any kind. As the two were finally left alone, Sebastian sat down in the waiting area with a sigh before looking up at his mother in concern. She was very tired, after a long day of diving and then this, but Sebastian knew that she would never leave the unknown boy alone unless they knew his family was coming, and Sebastian really didn't want to leave anyways.

“Mom, you're dead on your feet. Why don't you drive to Uncle Charlie and sleep for a while, and I will stay here until we know more. I'll call you if anything happens, and there will probably be hours of waiting before something happens. Just let me go grab a change of clothes in the car and a book to read, and I'm all set for a while.”

“Yes, maybe it is a good idea. You call the minute something happens, promise me.”

“I will, I promise.” Sebastian stood up and started leading his mother towards the doors.

Sebastian had been sitting in the waiting room for just an hour when he recognized the doctor who had taken the slight boy from his arms coming down the hall. He stood up slowly, approaching the haggard looking man, trying to catch his attention. The man looked at him questioningly.

“Hi, I was just wondering what happened with the young boy, me and my mother found him, and I wanted to make sure he was okay before I left.”

Understanding lit up in the doctors eyes. “Oh, of course. There was really only a head injury, and he fainted because he had lost so much blood. We stitched him up, and he is getting the blood he needs, so he should wake up once the anesthetic wears off.”

Sebastian smiled in thanks and gave him a nod, but he had noticed the way the doctors’ smile was strained and he wondered if there was something he hadn't been told. Of course, the doctor probably wasn't supposed to disclose anything to someone who wasn't related to the boy, but it put Sebastian on edge, and he decided to keep his ears open. He sent off a quick text to his mom, explaining things, and sat down with the book again.

Three more hours passed. Sebastian was using too much of his attention to listen to doctors and nurses to actually read much of the book. He sat up a little straighter when the familiar doctor and a police officer came walking towards him, and when it was clear they actually wanted to talk to him, he got up from the uncomfortable chair.

The policeman was the same he had talked to earlier - Officer Serento - and he greeted the men with an unsure smile as they stopped in front of him and Officer Serento started talking.

“The boy you brought in - did he say anything at all to you when you found him?”

Sebastian was a little confused as to why they were asking him this again, as they had gone over that five hours earlier. “No, as I said officer, he was barely even conscious when we found him. It seemed like he was working on pure will, and when he realized someone was there that could keep him safe, he collapsed. He didn't say a word.”

“Was there anything at all on the ground where you found him?”

This question was new, and Sebastian wondered what had happened, but answered the best he could. “There could have been, I was too focused on him to notice anything. If it was, it was something small. He was standing on asphalt, and there were no bushes or anything close by, but he looked like he had been walking for a while, so there might be something.”

The officer nodded, wrote something on his pad, and continued talking. “We can't be sure, but it seems like he has been in a car accident. His head injury is fitting to a car suddenly stopping. We haven't gotten a call about any accidents out that way, but we have sent patrol cars to look around.”

“Why?” Sebastian was getting really curious about this - couldn't they just wait until the boy woke up so he could tell them what happened?

The two men looked at each other for a few seconds before the officer nodded his head, and they turned to look at him again. This time it was the doctor doing the talking.

“The patient woke up half an hour ago. The problem is that he doesn't remember anything - not even his own name. Now, this is rather unusual for such a small head injury. People in car accidents might forget the accident in itself, but rarely any more. After looking through the CAT scans we took, however, we found a small brain tumor. The trauma to his head put pressure on the tumor, which again put pressure on the wrong places in his brain. We are prepping him for surgery as we speak, and it might help the memory, but not necessarily. The reason we are telling you this, is mostly because he might remember you and your mother, and we wanted to ask you to talk to him after the surgery, and help us figure out what is going on with his brain. You might be the only familiar faces in his world right now.”

Sebastian was a bit in shock. He had heard of people losing their memories, but he didn't think it was all that common - and to actually know of someone was a little strange. After a few moments he managed to stutter a reply. “Yeah, of course we'll help. How long will the surgery be? I can call my mother and ask her to come when it's done.”

“Well, the surgery itself will take about an hour, and then two to three more hours for him to wake up.”

“Okay, thanks for telling me.”

He walked out to parking lot, breathing in the spring air as he called his mother, telling her what was going on. She was shocked, naturally, and started crying for the young boy they didn't know, but who might only know them.

Another hour and a half went by before Sebastian saw the doctor again.

“The surgery went fine, the tumor is out, but now we just have to wait. You can go see him if you wish.”

“Thanks, I'll do that.”

The doctor gave him a room number, and Sebastian grabbed his things before heading towards the right floor and room.

The door was closed, and he opened it carefully to be sure he was at the right place. As soon he saw the pale figure in the bed, his heart lurched and he walked into the room. The other boy looked so small and defenseless - not that he had looked any better when they had found him. The big bed made him look even smaller, and uncharacteristically Sebastian found himself just wanting to help this boy in any way he could. He was not what anyone would call nice - he had few friends, and trusted even fewer people. He loved his family, but that was a far as his love had ever stretched, and yet his heart still went out to this boy. It could, of course be because he didn't remember anything, but he had wanted to care of him from the second he saw him on the road.

A moan came from the bed, and Sebastian looked up at the smaller boy. His face was scrunched up like he was having a nightmare, and when it didn't let up after a few minutes, Sebastian dragged his chair closer and sat down right next to the bed. He put one arm over the other boy in an attempt of a half hug, and carefully touched his own cheek to his while hushing him. The reaction was almost instant, the smaller boy curling his face towards Sebastian's neck and relaxing as he inhaled. Sebastian carefully laid his head next to the patient on the pillow, and when he still stayed calm, Sebastian relaxed there. Only minutes later, the sleepdeprived boy fell asleep.


	3. Waking up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta: Thanks to The Other, all mistakes are mine  
> Disclaimer: Glee is not mine

**Chapter 2: Waking up**

  
  


He shifted as he could feel his mind waking up. When he had woken up the first time, he had been so confused and so scared. His mind had been like a black hole - he couldn't find anything to hold onto. Everything had been a blur, but the doctors had informed him that he had amnesia , and they said something about a tumor in his head that needed to be removed. He had been too confused to follow what happened, and before he knew it, he was asleep again.

Now he was waking up for the second time, and things were a tiny bit clearer. He was still confused, and his mind was still blank, but not as much as before. He could remember the doctors now, and the police officer that had been in his room, and even though that didn't really say much about who he was or where he came from, it was better than not remembering anything.

For some reason, even though he was still confused and scared, he felt calmer now. He looked around the room, trying to figure out what had changed, when he suddenly noticed that he wasn't alone on the bed. A boy had an arm thrown over his waist (and how he hadn't noticed that before, he didn't know) and was resting his head on his other arm which was lying bent on the bed.

He looked at the boy. He had brown hair, and he seemed to be tall, but that was really all he could tell. Was this someone he should remember? A brother or maybe a friend? Why else would he be here? He reached out a hand and slowly ran his fingers through the hair. As he did so, the smell of the boy wafted towards him, and he felt his whole body relax. He didn't know who this boy was, but when he lay down curled up on one side, the arm still thrown over his waist and laying as close to the boy as possible, he knew one thing; the smell was familiar and made him feel extremely safe. He closed his eyes, taking in the smell and taking the boy's hand in his own, and fell asleep.

  
  


Sebastian woke with a start, and sat up. He wasn't sure what had woken him up, because he was still alone with the nameless boy, and the curtains where covering the window, blocking any sunshine that might peek through. He looked down on the bed, and realized that the boy had moved. He was lying on his side, curled up, with one hand holding Sebastian's own. His hand was soft, amazingly so, and Sebastian couldn't help but stroke it. Normally, when someone grabbed his hand, Sebastian would pull his away, but there was something about this boy. Sebastian just wanted to protect him, to help him, to...hold him. It scared him that this boy could affect him like that after not even a day, and Sebastian just wanted to pull into himself again and keep all emotions at bay, but this boy seemed to make that impossible. He looked so fragile, laying there in between the sheets, curled into himself.

“Hi.” The timid voice filled the quiet room like a gunshot, and Sebastian jumped, looking over at the boy's face. He was still subconsciously stroking the hand in his.

“Hi.” Sebastian gave the boy a smile.

“Do I know you?” There was a small hope in the boy's eyes, and Sebastian hated to have to crush it.

“My mother and I found you stumbling along the road and brought you to the hospital. You might remember me from that, I held you in my lap the half an hour it took to drive.”

“Oh, okay. It's just... nothing, forget it.”

Sebastian looked at him, wanting to press the issue, when suddenly the door opened and a nurse came in. A few minutes later, he was kicked out of the room, and he found a waiting room nearby, sending off a text to his mom before he fell asleep against the wall.

  
  


Vivian Smythe opened the doors to the hospital, and strode in, looking a little harried. She had gotten a text from Sebastian an hour ago, telling her that the boy was awake, and where Sebastian was waiting, but she had been caught in the morning traffic, and it had taken forever to get to the hospital. She quickly found the elevators, and walked off on the right floor. As she walked down the hallway, she could hear voices, but she didn't really pick up on anything until she heard two people talking in an office at the end of the hall, door open just a few inches. Vivian stopped and listened when she realized whom they were talking about.

“No, he doesn't seem to remember anything specific, but he seems to know things instinctively. He understood how to use the iPhone without problems, same with the laptop, so it seems it's mostly his episodic memories that are gone, not his procedural memory. The issue, however, is not that. We found a lot of bruises on his body, bruises covering other bruises, and also a few scars. There are no broken bones, but everything still points to abuse. Not necessary by his parents, but that's impossible to say.” It was a male voice, most probably a doctor.

A female voice answered him. “What I need to know is how old he is. If he is under 18, and we don't find his family, we need to get him to foster parents. If he's over 18, it's not our responsibility, it's the state.”

“Well, due to several things, I would say he is probably 17. It's hard to be exact, but I'm pretty sure he is not 18 yet.”

“Okay. Hopefully his memory will come back to him, and we can figure out where to go from there. He's going to need a foster family if he doesn't remember, and if he does remember, we'll open a case on him.”

Vivian sighed. Just the thought of the slight boy being abused. Right now she didn't quite know what she wished for the most; the boy to get his memory back to find his family, or for him to never remember and them to never find him.   
She walked towards the waiting room, thinking. They - she and her husband - were an approved foster home, because they had taken in a friend of their oldest who had had a lousy family. If the boy didn't get his memory back, they could take him in and help him out. Without a family, he would need someone to get a good start in his life, and the Smythes had more money than they knew what to do with, and love to go all around. She would wait, and meet the boy, and talk to Sebastian and Richard before she decided anything, but something told her that by the time the week was up, they would have a new member in the family.


	4. The Weekend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta: Thanks to The Other, all mistakes are mine  
> Disclaimer: Glee is not mine
> 
> The parts in bold is French.

**Chapter 3: The Weekend**

Vivian and Sebastian were finally let into the boy's room again. The doctors had taken tests and talked to him for two hours, while Vivian had filled in her son on her plans. Sebastian had cringed and felt his chest tighten when he thought about the boy being bruised and broken and even more did he wish he could protect him. Then his mother suggested that they take him in if his memory didn't come back, and Sebastian felt bad, because he almost wished that the boy wouldn't remember who he was, just so he wouldn't be taken away from him. Then, after two hours of agonizing about what was going to happen, they were told that the boy wanted to see them.

When they came into the hospital room, his mother smiled at the boy before joining the doctors and the woman Sebastian figured was from Social Services outside the room to talk. Sebastian stepped into the room and smiled when he saw the the boy was looking awake and sitting halfway up, leaning against the headboard. He got a smile back, somewhat shy, but beautiful. Him and his mother had agreed that Sebastian would be the one to approach the boy about coming with them.

“Hi. How are you doing?” Sebastian dragged the chair from the wall next to the bed and sat down, looking at the boy in the bed.

“I'm good, all things considering. I'm a little lost, and I have a headache, but I just had someone cut into my brain, so that's probably normal.” The pale boy looked at him wryly.

“Heh, yeah probably.” Sebastian smiled at him again; he couldn't seem to keep it at bay with this boy.  
“Look, I don't know what the doctors have told you, about what happened if you don't get your memory back?”

The boy tilted his head slightly, and gave Sebastian a look he didn't recognize. “Well, the social lady told me that I have to go into a foster family, as I'm not 18 yet.”

  
“Good, the reason I ask, is that our family is an approved foster family, and we would like to offer you to come with us.”

The boy smiled a little, and his eyes started tearing up. Sebastian didn't know what to do, but took his hand. A few minutes went by where the boy tried to gather himself, and in the end he nodded his head. “I would like that.”

“Good.”

Just then his mother came back in with the woman from Social Services and the doctor. The first looked pleased, and the latter a little disgruntled. Behind them followed Officer Serento, and he nodded at Sebastian and the boy before leaning on the wall next to the door. Sebastian gave his mother a small nod and a smile, and he got one back before his mother walked over to the bed.

“Mon petit enfant, I am Vivian Smythe, Sebastian's mother. It is good to finally meet you properly.”  
  
  


The boy smiled shyly at her. “You too. Thank you for taking me here, for saving me. Both of you.” He looked over at Sebastian as he said it, and both Smythe's gave him a big smile.

The doctor cleared his throat and began talking. “Now, young man, as we talked about, in a few days you will need a place to stay. The Smythes have offered their home, if you wish?” The boy nodded and the doctor kept on talking. “All right then. As you will be taking care of him, you will both need to know what is going on, so I'm going to go through what I have just told the patient.” Sebastian frowned at the way he talked to the boy, but he didn't exactly have a name they could use.  
  
  


“From what we can see, you have post-traumatic amnesia, heavy with retrograde amnesia. It's different for every person, and if there had only been the head injury you came in with, you probably wouldn't have forgotten more than a few seconds. The problem was the tumor. We can't be sure how long you've had it, or how long it was pressing on your nerves. This makes it very hard to say if the memories will come back or not. For now, it seems like your memories are gone, but that you remember three different kind of things. First is things you learned early on, and you remember that like muscle memory in a way. You have no problem speaking English, or using the eating utensils, because you have done so for most of your life. Second is general information. You knew at once what amnesia was, or a tumor, or a doctor. Third is things you have not necessary learned early in life, but done so much that in the same way it's muscle memory. You knew how to work the iPhone and the laptop, for example.

Now, it's hard to say what would happen if you met someone who knows you, if you would recognize them even if you can't remember them now. If you don't get your memories back, you probably won't recognize them by sight, but you might recognize them by smell or sound. Our brain has various ways of cataloging memories. Smell and sound can bring the brain back to certain memories much faster than sight. What I would recommend is to try new things every day; it's amazing what we remember in the subconscious, and you might find out things about your life, things you didn't know you could do. For example, you should try listening to or speaking different languages, or different hobbies, or subjects for school, like math and the like. Seeing as you remember general information, you might very well remember things like that as well. We have called in a specialist to come and talk to you while you're here, which will be for about a week, provided there are no complications.

Also, you should try to pick a name for yourself, at least a first name.”

The doctor took a deep breath, and looked over at the police officer. Serento pushed away from the wall and walked to the end of the bed before he started talking.

  
“You were found just across the state line of New York. It is hard to say which direction you came from, and the area will be vastly different depending on if you drove or not. We have been searching the area for a car, but have been coming up empty so far. If you drove, you could have come from all over the place, but for now we are looking particularly at missing persons in the states of New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio. You might have driven down from Canada, but as you accent doesn't hold a grain of Canadian, we see that as the least likely. We will continue searching for the car for a few more days, and if we can't find it, we will look more closely at the closest towns. The main problem is that it's weekend, and you might have been headed somewhere, so your parents might not miss you until Sunday evening, but as I said, we're keeping out eyes open.”

“Thank you, officer.” The boy's voice was soft and the high tones were a big contrast to the gravelly voice of the officer, and all the people in the room relaxed just an infinite more.

  
A few minutes later, the officer, doctor and social worker all filed out of the room. Sebastian took the boy's hand in his, squeezing it in an effort to comfort. “This is my mother, Vivian. We were on out way to some relatives in Buffalo when we found you, she was over there when I was in here earlier.

“Hi, ma'am. Thank you for... everything. ” The boy stretched out his hand, and his mother took his in both of her own.

“It was my pleasure, mon cher, we are just glad that we were able to help. How do you feel?”

“A little numb, but relieved that I have somewhere to go.” He smiled at them shyly.

“We are glad to have you. We” she was broken off by her cellphone ringing in her pocket, and she excused herself, closing the door after her. Sebastian wasn't sure, but it looked like the boy relaxed just a little more when the two of them were alone, and it brought a smile the normally so cocky lips.

“We really are glad to have you. Do you want me to tell you about the family?” The boy nodded, and Sebastian went on. “Well, there's my dad, Richard, who's a lawyer. My mum, Vivian,” he gestured to the door “runs a big fashion company from Paris mostly. I have two older siblings, both in college in New York; my sister Katherine is going to medical school and my brother Oliver is studying political science.”

“And you?” The boy looked at him in interest, and Sebastian gave him another smile.

“Oh, I just finished my freshman year in high school.” Sebastian decided against telling the boy anything about the choice between Paris and New York. He knew that all of this would greatly affect any plans they would make, and there was no reason for the boy to feel like they were changing their lives for him. Sebastian looked at the boy, who was smiling carefully at him, before he decided to jump in with a question that had been bugging him for some time.

“I have to ask, I was kinda expecting you to freak out, but you're so calm.”

The boy snorted and looked a little wry. “You weren't here early this morning. I had a complete melt down, cried and screamed and was generally a pain in the ass for the staff. I guess I got it out of my system, there's no use in freaking out, and the faster I get used to this life, the better for myself.”

“Wow, that is impressive. Wish I had seen the breakdown though.” He gave the boy a crooked smile, and got a wicked one back.

“Oh, it was epic. I threw things.” They laughed, and Sebastian could feel something lifting in him. He didn't meet many people who a) could keep up with him and b) could stand him for longer periods of time, but this boy seemed to get Sebastian, even without his memory.

“So, what do you say to making a list over all the things you want to try out to figure out if you know?” Sebastian drew out a notebook from his bag, and took the pen from the night table next to the bed.

“Yes, that's a great idea, let’s do that.” The boy sat up, and Sebastian found a blank page, writing on the top: What can I do?

“Well, if we take the good doctor’s advice, we should probably add every language in existence here, so let’s just write them down as we figure them out instead of trying to remember them all now.” Sebastian split the page in two with a simple line, and wrote languages on the right side. “We can check out one of them now, if you want, I speak French.”

“You do? Is that where your mother is from? France?” They boy seemed to perk up a little by this news.

“ **Yes, she was born and raised there, in a small city. She met my father when she came to the states to study fashion, and they married after two years together. We have lived in Paris the last year, and I learned to speak French when I was four years old. Do you understand what I just said?”** Sebastian looked at the boy with raised eyebrows, waiting for any indignation that he had understood. He got a rather clear one.

“ **I understood perfectly. Do you have other family in France?”**  
The boy seemed just as shocked as Sebastian, and after a few seconds, Sebastian let out a little laugh.

“Well, seems like you speak fluent French then. I have no idea why or how, but either you've been to France a lot, or one or both of your parents are French.”

They continued to work on the list throughout the day. The specialist would come Sunday morning, so Sebastian got to stay there most of Saturday. Vivian was in and out of the room, taking calls to make sure the boy got to come with them, and for the most part just looked at the two boys. Sebastian was a popular boy, but he had always had problems getting real friends, and yet he seemed to connect to this boy so easily. It was heartwarming for a mother to see, and to hear her son’s laugh more times in one day than she had over the last year was wonderful.

When Sebastian was chased out of the room Saturday evening, he left the notebook with the boy, and the list looked like this:

 _What do I know?_  
Languages  
French - yes

Hobbies  
School sports  
Dancing  
Writing  
Clay work  
Knitting  
Embroiderer  
Painting  
Singing

They had been goofing around a lot, and half of the things on there were a joke, but they figured they could try it.

  
Sunday came, and Sebastian and Vivian were set for the hospital again. It was the first time Sebastian had slept in a little over 30 hours, so he had been out like a light when they had gone home the night before, but now he was up and full of energy. He was looking forward to see the boy again, though he knew he couldn't stay there all day; the specialist was coming in today.

  
When they showed up at the hospital door a little after ten, it was closed, and they knocked softly on the door. Before they could open it a women was standing in the door, looking at them with raised eyebrows.

  
“Oh, sorry, are you the specialist?”

  
“Yes, I am. And you are?”  
  
  


“The people that found him, and we're going to be his foster family. We didn't know you were here, we will just come back in a few hours?” Vivian raised her eyebrows in question of the time, and the therapist nodded.  
  
  


“We're taking a break at about 12, so you can come back then.”

When they came back, the door was open, and the boy was sitting in the bed, a piece of paper in his hands. He looked up when they walked in, and his face lit up in a smile.  
  
  


“Hi.”  
  
  


“Hi, did you have a good night? And how was the therapist?”  
  
  


The boy looked down at the paper in his hands again before he looked at Sebastian, who had claimed his usual seat. “Yeah, it was first proper sleep I've had, it was nice. And she was nice, she liked our list. ” His smile widened a little. “Told me that we should keep working on it, the two of us.” Sebastian nodded with a smile of his own. “She also told me to pick a name, and I finally have.”  
  
  


He looked up at them both, before seemingly steeling himself. “Hi, my name is Alexander Clarkson. You can call me Alex.”  
  
  


“How did you pick the name?” Sebastian looked at the boy, Alex, curiously.  
  
  


“Well, it just popped into my head. I don't know why, but it just felt right, so I went with it.”

The rest of the day involved a lot of sitting around for Sebastian, while Alex had the therapist with him, but he didn't mind all that much; the few hours he got to spend with him in between were more than worth it.

**

It was the night to Monday, and it was a quiet night at the police station in Buffalo. The larger part of the night shift was sleeping on the couches in the break room, taking advantage of the calm to get some sleep. One of the newbies was finishing up some paperwork, and was waiting for the printer when a fax came through. He picked up the paper curiously, and looked at the missing child poster. It was a 17 year old boy who had gone missing from Westerville. He had never seen the boy in the picture, but he went out to the pin board to hang it there. It should be faxed on to the local hospitals, but he had no idea where to even start looking for those fax numbers, and he didn't want to wake anyone up, so he put up a mental reminder to himself to fix it later.

  
Just as he tacked the fax onto the board, the phone rang, and only seconds later the police station was in full chaos; there had been a shooting outside of the city, with shooters and victims in high numbers. In the chaos, the fax fell down on the floor and was trampled. In the morning, when the cleaning staff started working, the very important fax that would have changed more than one life was thrown out in the garbage, the face of Kurt Hummel balled up, wet and dirty.


	5. Let's start this

**Chapter 4: Let's start this**

  
  


The next week passed by fast. Alex talked to the specialist every day that week, and he shared some of it with Sebastian. After a few days it was clear that the memories weren't coming back any time soon, at least not whilst laying in a hospital, so the staff had decided to let Alex go with the Smythes when the week was over.

  
Alex had some mood swings, naturally, and went from his calm and happy self to a sobbing mess to a screaming rage. It was usually when he was tired and frustrated, and if Sebastian wasn't around. The staff had found it best to just let him wear himself out. Sebastian seemed to have a calming effect on Alex, and when asked about it, the patient could only say that he felt safe with Sebastian. They kept working on the list, and Sebastian even brought some language recordings to check if Alex was familiar with them. Other than slightly recognizing Spanish and Hebrew for some reason, it seemed that he didn't know any more, and they were starting in on the weirder ones.

  
The search for his car and identity was not going as well. After three days of looking for the car, they hadn't managed to find it, and had decided that Alex had most probably walked there. They started looking more closely at the towns around, but no one recognized his face.

  
Sebastian and his mom had discussed where they would take Alex when they let him out of the hospital, and they had talked it over with his dad and their relatives in Buffalo, and had in the end decided that it was best to stay in Buffalo. His aunt and uncle owned a large mansion, with a huge garden and in general a much more open space than the apartment they had in New York. The rest of the family would drive down and stay with them there, and they would talk about New York again after a few weeks.

  
Sebastian only had two cousins in Buffalo, and they were both under the age of five, Marian at four years old, and Robin at two. They couldn't wait to meet this mystery man, and they always wanted to come with them to the hospital.

Tuesday, a week and a half after he had been found, Alex was discharged. The wound was closing itself nicely, and he had been told that as long as he was careful with it, there shouldn't be a problem. He would have to come in once a week for a check up as well as to talk with a psychiatrist until they removed the stitches, and if his memories didn't start coming back in a few weeks, he would get a new social security number and a passport.

Sebastian had come to drive Alex to his new home, and as they walked out the hospital doors, Alex stopped and closed his eyes and took a deep breath. They had absolutely no idea what could be triggering his memories, and for all they knew, he could take two steps outside the hospital and suddenly remember everything. Sebastian just looked at Alex as he stood there. He had gotten some more meat on his bones since he had arrived at the hospital, and he was wearing some clothes Sebastian had bought; a pair of black skinny jeans and a simple, tight sweater. Sebastian had tried to remember what clothes Alex was wearing when they found him, and had bought something as close to that as possible. He would have given Alex some of his own clothes, and though the pants might have fitted, the shirt never would, Sebastian's torso was simply too long. Alex's skin was a little pale, but they would fix that with a few days in the sun., and his head was covered in a hat that looked surprisingly good, as they had to shave almost half of it on the side to do the surgery.

  
Alex suddenly opened his eyes and looked at Sebastian with raised eyebrows, and he stared the slighter boy towards the car. It was his mom's car, a Volkswagen, and as they drove out of the parking lot, Alex touched the dashboard and looked around the front seat.

“Is this the car you were in when you found me?”

  
“Yes, I was sitting in the passenger seat with you in my lap. Do you remember it?”   
  
  


Alex tipped his head and made a frustrated sound. “Not... no like remembering, but more like... I think it's the smell.” He closed his eyes again and took another deep breath before nodding. “Yes, it's the smell. I recognize it.”  
  
  


“That's really good.”  
  
  


The hour or so out to the house went mostly with a little smalltalk and Alex looking out at the buildings and fields and in general taking in as much as possible. As he pulled the car into the drive way, Alex' eyes where firmly locked on the big house in front of them.

  
  


The weeks went on, and the days passed by fast. Alex had some bad days, but also a lot of good ones. Within the first week, he had met all the extended family that lived in the area, and after everyone had stopped treating him like he was made of glass, he got along with most of them perfectly fine. Katherine and Oliver both liked Alex, and vise versa, but it was too early to say how he would fit in the dynamics of the family. Most of the Smythes were still very careful with Alex, they didn't want him to have to deal with anything else than the memory loss, so they walked around him like on eggshells. The longer since the accident, the less likely it was that the memories would return, and Alex had, with the help of the therapist, started letting his old life go. It wasn't that he wanted to, or that he was so keen on never remembering, but he couldn't live in an unknown past forever. He needed to start his life again, to find a purpose and dreams and get some idea of what he wanted.

Sebastian had been the first one to start treating him like a normal human being, and Alex loved him for it. He had found that Sebastian was snarky and witty and extremely kind, and after his little cousins stopped being so careful around him, Alex felt like he was finding a bit of himself as well. He didn't know if what he was finding was a totally new self or if he was just picking up old pieces of himself, but Alex found himself to be sarcastic and witty and loyal to those he loved.

He and Sebastian went through the list, sometimes with the help of his younger cousins, and they had a lot of fun with it. Sebastian decided that every hobby Alex tried, he should do too, which lead to some extremely fun moments.

French seemed to be the reach of his language, though he recognized a few more. They had quickly discovered that he could sing, and Sebastian had been very pleased to have someone to sing with. After trying out a few classes at the local gym, they had also found that he could dance rather nicely, and that he might have been a gymnast or something, as his flexibility was rather insane.   
He had tried painting, knitting and sculpting, all three a disaster. He seemed to understand a sowing machine well enough, but they had only made samples to figure it out. Sebastian had almost stitched up his hand on the machine, so they had let that be for now.   
They tried out every sport Sebastian could think of, and though Alex was decent at some of them, it didn't seem like it was something he had been doing before.

They had also found out other things, smells that Alex associated with different things. They had walked by a dumpster once, and the second they had come in smelling distance, Alex had backed off, refusing to go past it without Sebastian between him and the dumpster. Another time, they were at the mall when someone sprayed a perfume their way, and Alex had relaxed his whole body and had gotten tears in his eyes, without any idea as to why.

Summer was almost half over when Vivan sat down with them in the living room with a serious face.

“Boys, we need to make a decision soon. Sebastian, you are still enrolled at you school in France, and I have talked to the headmaster there. They have no problem with letting Alex start there as well, he would need to take some placement tests to see which year he'd fit in. Alex, if you would rather stay in the States, we have several schools we can contact, but we need to do so now.”

“What are you and dad doing?” Sebastian asked.

“I need to go back to France in a few weeks, your dad is still making up his mind. Katherine and Oliver will stay, of course, and continue their studies.”

Sebastian looked at Alex and raised his eyebrows in question. As far as he was concerned, he would go wherever Alex went.

“Can I even leave the country? What will happen with the therapist and everything?” Alex asked.

“Yes, we are working on getting you a passport, it won't be ready when I have to leave, but you boys can fly down a little later. I have talked to the hospital and the social services, neither is particularly happy with you leaving the country, but I know some therapists we can contact in Paris who will be able to continue to help you. Boys, we don't need an answer today, but soon.”

Vivian gave them a smile before leaving the room, and Sebastian grabbed Alex' hand in his, squeezing it in a hopefully reassuringly way.


	6. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta: Thanks to jwmelmoth, all mistakes are mine  
> AN: This is the end of this particular part of the story. However, there will be more, read the note at the bottom.   
> AN2: I have updated the whole story again with a few minor edits. It has no effect on the story itself, so there is no need to re-read if you don't want to

Epilogue

France, January, six months later

  
  


  
  


“ _How are you doing today, Alex?”_

  
  


“ _I'm good. Actually, I'm really good.”_

  
  


“ _Yeah, I can see that, you haven't stopped smiling since you came in here.”_

  
  


“ _I, uhm... Sebastian and I, we... We've started dating. Being boyfriends. Kinda.”_  
  
  


“ _Wow, that is good. And it feels good? It's not just because you trust him, you actually want to be with him?”_

  
  


“ _Yes, yes, I do. I've been wanting this for the last few months, but something was holding me back a little. And then we were at this new years party, and he kissed me at midnight. It was... it was really good.”_

  
  


“ _That sounds just romantic and cheesy enough for the both of you.”_

  
  


“ _Hehehe, yeah. He told me to tell you hi, and that the romance was all for my sake.”_

  
  


“ _Hahaha, I bet he did. Tell him he better keep it up then, or I'll make him come in for another session.”_

  
  


“ _I will, that is probably the most effective threat I can use.”_  
  
  


“ _Good. Now, a small change of subject, how are you feeling about leaving the States? Any regrets?”_  
  
  


“ _No, not really. I followed my guts, and even though there was some really tough months at first, I still feel like I made the right choice. It was strange at first, being in another class without Sebastian, and getting new friends, but I did, and I manage to still stay close with him, and I love that. I like my school, and I've started trying to figure out what I want to do after.”_

  
  


“ _That's good, do you have any ideas? I know you and Sebastian both model for his mother, do you want to do that full-time? Or maybe follow her footsteps and design? Or how about working with cars, you found out you were rather good at that, right?”_

  
  


“ _Yeah, we model, though I'm not sure I want to do that full-time. I want to study something, I think. Design is one thing I am considering, as is cars. And yes, we kinda stumbled on to the fact that I can do almost anything with a car. That was fun. I'm not entirely sure yet, but I have another few months before I need to start looking for schools.”_

  
  


“ _Well, it does sound like you have a plan, at least, and that's great. Any new memories?”_

  
  


“ _No, not really. It's been quiet on that front lately, but I try not to think too much about it.”_

  
  


“ _Good, that's good. And that is all the time we have today. I'll see you in two weeks?”_

  
  


“ _Yes, goodbye”_

  
  


 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: This is the epilogue of this story, but it's also a part of a series. I will continue with several one-shots, one about how they found out Kurt could fix a car, one about when they got together, and one from Lima's POV. Then there will be a second multi-chapter story that I have already started writing.


End file.
